Higher Education in Jordan: Senior Leadership Practice and Challenges

Abstract

Colleges and universities in Jordan face several important immediate and long-term challenges which in turn underscore the need for exemplary senior leadership. The purpose of this research is to provide insights useful to help addressing the question about the type of leaders Jordanian higher education needs to effectively overcome the current long-standing challenges, and to examine the relationship between transformational leadership practices and perception of leaders about the resources and authority (means efficacy) available for them to face these particular challenges. The theoretical framework for the study is based upon transformational leadership theory where a mixed method approach is adopted. The findings for research was determined from a self-rating survey distributed to 195 university presidents, vice presidents and academic deans from Jordan along with interviews conducted with 10 survey respondents. The findings suggest that Jordan needs more transformational leaders in the higher education institutions to effectively overcome some of the sector’s challenges. Those leaders should be particularly skilled in Inspirational Motivation (IM) and Intellectual Stimulation (IS) so that their perception about the difficulty of facing these challenges is enhanced and their effectiveness is improved. This finding has implications for leadership development and future research in Jordanian Higher Education.

Date of Award	17 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Dan Davies (Supervisor) & Stephen Wyatt (Supervisor)